Ottawa Museums Fighti ‘Fake News’ With Rebranding

As ‘Fake News’ continues to dominate the airwaves, museums in Ottawa are taking advantage of the situation by rebranding themselves as a place where people can get the real facts.

Canada’s 150 celebrations has led to a spike in museum visitors and many people feel that the trend will continue as people begin to look to these institutions as a primary source of information and history. With so much false information flooding the internet, it has become difficult separating fiction from fact.

“There is so much — for lack of a better term, I will call it noise — there are so many different stories: ‘What is news? Is it fake news? What’s going on?’ ” said Fern Proulx, chief executive officer of three of Ottawa’s national museums.

They have changed their moniker to Ingenium: Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation.

“Museums are a trusted source of information. We need to be prominent in that space.”

“Museums are much more than curio kits that are displays of the past,” Proulx said. “We are part of the fabric, part of the culture. We need to get Canadians on the world stage.”

Guy Berthiaume, Canada’s chief librarian says, “We need to be the place truth can be found.”